grandeur; but, as the philosopher believes that Man has natural relations to Infinite Truth, and that the universe (as it were), calls aloud, inviting us to the study, so the practical worshipper of the Most High believes that man has natural relations with him, and that the Infinite One virtually invites his finite creature to fellowship and intimacy. This is that, which religious people call the Spirit of God moving within them. They know not what impels them, some day, to address the Unseen Presence as a child speaks to a father. It appears an impulse not their own. When innocent instinct pervades an entire race, we do not ascribe it to the individuals of the race, but to the Author of their nature: much more then the nobler movements of the soul, so far as they are normal to man, may not unreasonably be called the workings of God within us. Hence, says Paul, God has sent forth the spirit of sonship into our hearts. Ordinarily this is the result of the heart's full surrender to God as the centre of all righteousness. When we deliberately judge that the highest virtue is man's best portion and that all sin is shameful and miserable, then the law of the Spirit is to us perfect freedom; a righteous God becomes a lovely object, and our earnest aspiration is that his holy fire may burn out all our unholiness. This desire is the germ of perfect peace; for, our will being subdued to God's will, the sense of his nearness is delightful; and inevitably with it the faith springs up, that the holy will of God must triumph over human sin. No one who is conscious that his will is on God's side, can dread the thought of God's immediate presence; and the belief of our direct moral relations with him is likely to grow up into gradually increasing strength with inward exercises of the heart in this communion. Does any one present say, that such thoughts are too lofty,— are mystical,-are fanciful? If I could for a moment believe them fanciful, if I did not deem them to be words of entire soberness, I could not utter them here; but that they are mystical, I freely concede. Spiritual religion is nothing, if it be not mystical. To walk as seeing him who is invisible, to be conscious that God is in us, and that we have our life in him, is essentially mystical and mysterious; yet not the less true and certain. Of God himself we can only speak by metaphor and analogy, because our primitive vocabulary is made for things of sense, and is only gradually added to, as experience in things supersensible accumulates. If any one wants a religion which is developed out of, and measured by, Physical Science, he can get it; but it will have no element of spirituality, no relation to human morals, and will be of no concern whatever for daily life, any more than a theory concerning Gravitation or Electricity. But if Religion is to be a universal and moral bond, its very nature is inward, spiritual, mystical; but not the less,-nay, so much the more, accessible and important to every human soul. If we were to alledge that "Religion is the true poetry of life," we should misrepresent it; yet in common with poetry and all high Art it must have a mystical element. : Sound religion never can delude us into the immoralities of fanaticism for it does not prescribe and dominate the law of morals, but is dominated thereby. Moral law rests on the universal reason of mankind, and prescribes to religion. True religion submits to this law, not accounting it a yoke or a burden, but a basis, and a purpose for which we are made and live. On this critical point depends its perfect sobriety. The very idea of a HOLY God (whether primitively Egyptian or Hebrew or Persian or Buddhist, let antiquarians settle), distinguishes the noble tradition which Christians, Jews, Mohammedans, and Brahmos honour, from the defective counterfeit. "Thus saith the high and lofty One whose name is Holy." Neither to the Pagan nor to the mere Physical philosopher is the supreme Power a Holy Spirit. But when we cannot conceive of God himself but as in harmony with moral law, much more do we regard subjection to moral law as our own noblest and best state; and this is the fit interpretation of the words: "Be ye holy, for I am holy." No inward impressions, imagined to be divine, must be adduced as dictating to us right and wrong. Only when we know our inward suggestions to be intrinsically good, can we presume to attribute them to the Father of Lights, from whom cometh down every good and perfect gift. Such is the sufficient reply to those who dread lest spiritual impetus dictate some new and false morality. A vivid sense of God's presence cannot alter our tranquil estimate of the right and the wrong in human action. It leaves our code of morals wholly undisturbed. It does but stimulate us to act up to our highest convictions of right, and brace us up (where needful) to brave self-sacrifice. In this respect it is comparable to the presence of a revered and elder friend: at least the comparison makes it easy to understand the moral influence of this sublime faith. If our creed no longer comprizes many matters believed by pious men of old, still for us as for them remains the truth, that a life of religion is a life of faith. Still, as ever, it conduces to the elevation of man by exercising him in the noblest sorrows and the loftiest joys, while it tends also to maintain him in that imperturbable state which Stoicism admired, without any danger of losing tenderness. A bitter and painfully true complaint has of late been uttered against certain physical and metaphysical philosophers, that with Reverence towards God they had lost Mercy towards Brutes, even while maintaining that the human race is derived from brute progenitors. But if we love and trust in a glorious and holy God, who, though he be the lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, yet by his in-dwelling revives every contrite and weak soul of man,-how can we but feel tenderly towards those who are weaker than ourselves? Nay, love to the Unseen and Mighty One is so much harder than compassion to those whom we see, that the higher attainment pre-supposes the lower; insomuch that John the Elder asks, How shall a man who loves not his brother whom he hath seen, love God whom he hath not seen? The light of God's spiritual joy. That Thus, to behold the Let no one then suppose that religion is or ever could be an affair of opinions and notions, whether concerning historical facts, physics, or metaphysics, any more than it can consist in the endless genealogies and old wives' fables at which good Paul scoffs. What we need is a heart harmonized to our highest attainable morality, devoted to justice and mercy, and thereby to tenderness and purity; a heart thus prepared to rejoice in the belief of a holy God, and esteeming his approbation more than all worldly objects. Through all the devotional Hebrew literature which has been esteemed sacred, and equally in the Christian Scriptures, a remarkable metaphor is stereotyped. countenance is identified with the highest which the eye cannot see, faith alone sees. face of God is the bliss of Heaven itself, and is supposed to have a transforming effect on the beholder. "We shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." "I shall behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." So deep, fervent, and continuous for more than two thousand years has been the conviction, that mentally to see and know God is both the highest bliss and the most purifying influence. Have we not here an instructive assurance that my present topic is one of sober reality, not of flighty and personal fantasy? Brethren and sisters of my own age, we have not long. to abide in this tabernacle of flesh; we are ripe for the supremacy of the spirit. It is high time for us to stay our souls on the thought of the Eternal. And oh ye who are either in full maturity or in the dawn of life, receive kindly the word of exhortation. We have inherited a vast series of noble and instructive experiences, chiefly of Jews and Christians, most diverse in detail, but agreeing notably in the simple faith that God is holy, just, and tender, and that to live in a daily sense of his presence is to walk by faith, and enter into intimate relation with him. Such communion cannot be long together conscious, nor would that be healthful; for it would impede our practical duties to man, which (in my judgment) are the end for which we exist. But the remembrance of God ought to be the happy home, to which the secret heart naturally falls back in the intervals of duty and business. Our strength for self-sacrifice and our buoyancy on the waves of life, the soundness of our moral judgments and the nobleness of our characters, can hardly fail of being increased, when we habitually take delight in a tranquil sense that God is within us and around us. Cultivate this heavenly intimacy in your secret moments, and your reward from it will be great. A Hebrew Psalmist of old, in his own peculiar dialect, expressed this thought energetically: "Justice and Judgment are the habitation of thy throne: Mercy and Truth go before thy face. Blessed is the people that know this joyful tiding: They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. In thy name shall they rejoice all the day, And in thy righteousness shall they be exalted." Let me, in conclusion, quote side by side the words of our poet Cowper, where he speaks, not as a sectarian Christian, but as uttering the essence of Christianity : "But oh! Thou bounteous giver of all good, Such, in my vehement conviction, is to be the Religion of the Future. THE SERVICE OF GOD. [1875.] "O Lord, truly I am thy servant. I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid. Thou hast broken my bonds."-PSALM CXVI. 16. RELIGION has a long history. It is perhaps as old as human nature. At every time it reflects our moral and intellectual state. It is barbarous in our barbarism. It is puerile, while our intellects are immature. It becomes more manly with our manlier thoughts, pure and tender with our more refined morals. The rude or savage man, who discovers in the vast world Powers greater than himself and older than the solid globe, easily believes that some gods are kindly and others cruel. The God who gives genial harvests and healthful seasons is the good God; but the power who wields the hurricane and the lightning seems to be a demon. We know, as a fact, particular tribes to have argued frankly, that it is not necessary to concern ourselves about the good God, who is sure to be kind. The only matter of importance (they said) is, to propitiate the evil demons, and avert their anger. Thus, as a matter of policy, demon-worship is put forward as the cardinal task of religion. But wherein does this worship or service consist? It is assumed that the mighty Being who sometimes crushes feeble man, crushes him through malevolence and cruelty. Such a Being is likely to be proud, vain, jealous; easily affronted, but appeased by submission, by gifts and by flattery. Therefore the service of the god becomes like to that of an earthly tyrant. Worship paid to one somewhat lower in morals than ourselves is degrading to the votary and demoralizing. No one can say into what depths of cruelty to man such fantastic service may descend, if once the ceremonies of worship are systematized and receive traditional sanction from national usages and law. Thus, in order that worship or service to God may be healthful, rightful, elevating, ennobling, the first essential condition is, that we believe God to be better than ourselves; not merely more powerful, but better, in every sense in which we can understand goodness. It needs no high effort of thought, no especial power |